Reviews for the Compal NBLB2

When we reviewed the competing Clevo B5130M from AVADirect (and also offered by Cyberpower), the conclusion was fairly clear cut: it'd be an easy sell if Dell's XPS 15 didn't exist. That was reasonable enough then: the two are comparable in spec, but Dell offers a better screen, better build quality, and better battery life. With the Compal NBLB2 in the mix, though, things get murkier.

Intel Core i7: The Intel Core i7 for laptops is based on the LG1156 Core i5/i7 CPU for desktops. The base clock speed of the CPUs is relatively low, but because of a huge Turbo mode, the cores can dynamically overclock to up to 3.2 GHz (920XM). Therefore, the CPU can be as fast as high clocked dual-core CPUs (using single threaded applications) but still offer the advantage of 4 cores. Because of the large TDP of 45 W / 55 W, the CPU is only intended for large laptops.

640M:

The Core i7-640M is the fastest Dual-Core CPU for laptops (at the time of introduction in Q4 2010) and successor of the 620M. It clocks betwenn 2.8 and 3.64 GHz due to the Turbo Mode and because of Hyperthreading, 4 threads are executed simultaneously. In the package, Intel also included a second die with an integrated GPU (GMA HD) and a memory controller. Therefore, the TDP of 35 Watt of the whole package is still quite good.

15.6": 15 inch display-variants are the standard and are used for more than the half of all notebooks. 15.4 inch display with 16:10 are the standard for notebook displays. However nowadays, more and more 16:9 displays with 15.6 inch appear. The reason why so many people like displays with medium size is, that this size is not exhausting for the eyes, does not need too much energy and the laptops can be kept quite compact.» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.

2.7 kg: This notebook is lighter than the average of all notebooks. It is too heavy for sub-notebooks. 14 inch displays are normal for this class of weight.